Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Mighty No. 9 Live-Action Movie in Production

You thought Keiji Inafune would stop at a cartoon? Ohhhhh no. Legendary Digital Media, Contradiction Films (producers of Dead Rising: Watchtower), and Comcept today announced they are developing a live-action movie based on Mighty No. 9 for digital platforms.

"The announcement that Legendary Digital is
collaborating with Contradiction and Comcept on creating a live action
project based on Mighty No. 9 is really amazing, not only for
myself and the rest of the team at Comcept who worked on the game, but
also for all the fans who have supported the project,” said
Keiji Inafune. “This collaboration will give our creation the ability to
reach people all over the world. Thanks to all of your support, we have
fulfilled another one of our dreams."

This announcement comes two months ahead of Mighty No. 9's release -- September 15th in North America, September 18th in Europe. Not one to wait, Keiji Inafune is quickly earning himself a trigger happy reputation. It's worrisome, if you ask me.

Dude, the people of this blog are giving Inafune a hard time. I know they want new MegaMan games, but you can't get what you want by whining and complaining about it. You really think Inafune is stealing all your money so he can use it to make more products on Mighty No. 9? I don't think he's a greedy businessman, he left Capcom for a reason and the commentors of this blog are giving him a hard time about it.

If it were just a game, I wouldn't be so up-in-arms about it. But we -- you, the backers, or I, the detractor -- haven't even gotten a game before Inafune is trying to make it into everything under the sun, including a spin-off! And he's not the least bit shy about saying "Hey Capcom. Suck it." while doing so.

You don't see me getting pissy about Bloodstained or Yooka-Laylee because those are just games and the people involved aren't trying to discredit the original material to the extent that Inafune has. Inafune clearly does not want Mighty No. 9 and Red Ash to be "just games", given his "throw something until it sticks" philosophy of marketing. But as I have said a few times by now, franchising is an earned privilege... and Inafune has yet to earn that. He needs to start from the ground up, build a name and reputation, and earn his way... not build a mile-high tower of hype and hope someone invests from the get-go.

Dude, you're making baseless assumption. MN9 may be a good game when it comes out and you will probably end up liking it.You're giving poor Inafune some stress if he sees you posting comments like this. He's still a good game devloper and those who bash him is giving him a differcult time.

I'll certainly agree, Inafune is exhibiting very risky business behavior. That is absolutely true. This could be leading up to one monster of a backlash. But why are you so invested in it? You didn't even back the game.

At this point I'm not sure if you want Inafune to fail so you can have that cathartic release if you're proven right or if you want him to be successful and are frustrated that he seems to be doing everything to betray that possibility?

I'm not asking to try and chide you for your opinions I am just genuinely confused on why you seem so upset about all of this.

Here's an idea for those complaining. Please remember that Comcept is a new company that doesn't have the funds that Capcom has. Maybe, just maybe, Inafune is taking on these extra projects in order to build some financial support for bigger and better projects. So just sit back relax...Mighty No. 9 will be out soon.

If Comcept really wanted to play it safe with their funding, they would wait to see how successful the damn game is. Inafune is clearly way ahead of himself, and there's really no defending that. I can understand if the game came out and was largely successful, but what Inafune is doing here is counting his chickens before they hatch.

Musashi, you can love a game and all, but that still doesn't excuse the decisions that Inafune has been making. If anything, it comes off as fanboy'ish. I was pretty supportive of MN9 before, and I still want to be, but after seeing its development and announcement after announcement over the past while, I'm starting to have doubts.- Dr. Jerk.

And for the first time ever, Blogger has told me "Nope. You talk too much." That's... different.Right. This one gets split in half. Hope there's not a reply wedged in between mine... Ha hah... But before I reply to this bunch of comments, let me pinpoint one particular "counter-point" here that really amuses me:

- "You didn't even back the game"So basically, my opinion that Inafune is going to ruin his own company with all these risky (and just plain stupid) moves has no bearing because I didn't back Mighty No. 9? I never thought of it that way. Certainly not the half-dozen times other people made that counter-point. Thank you for opening my eyes to the truth, that I may only have an opinion about if I'm financially invested in it, even if my opinion actually has nothing to do with the primary product itself.

Now then, let's move on to some other comments:

- "You're making baseless assumptions"The only assumption I'm making here is that Inafune is more interested in making money than making a game -- as any good businessman should be. Ya know... despite the fact he outright stated he hated Japanese business practices and all.

- "Mighty No. 9 may be a good game"I never said it wouldn't be. All I said was it's a poor man's Mega Man/X knock-off. And I mean that literally, given what we've seen and heard over the past two years. Inafune has never come right out and said it, of course... he's more subtle than that. So subtle, in fact, he's actually able to completely avoid infringing on any copyrights because, oh hey, it's not Mega Man or it's not Legends.Yes, the game is still being worked on and will allegedly be released some time soon, but given all the things that's happened over the last two years, I'm wagering it's going to suffer Duke Nukem Forever-syndrome and be nowhere near as good as the hype. Hell, even the prototype from last year didn't live up to peoples' expectations... but as has been pointed out numerous times, "it was still a prototype". But since they removed enemy-based power-ups due to being "over-budget" (or more likely very poor financial decisions), I can't see how the final product will be too much different.But no, while I said the game itself looks mediocre (something which plenty of other people have said, mind you), I never said it would end up being a bad game As a matter of fact, I've said at least once or twice that I would absolutely love to be proved wrong and for the game to actually be interesting. But right now, I just don't see it. So stop making baseless assumptions.[1/2]

[2/2]- "He's still a good game developer"But is he even developing games at this point? Seems to be like he's coming up with ideas and making everyone else -- fans included -- do all the work. Well, aside from occasionally playtesting the thing, of course... Then again, that's pretty much what an executive producer does anyway.

- "And those who bash him are giving him a hard time"Only those who throw stuff in his face directly, through Twitter, forums, or otherwise. I've never bothered the man directly, though I'd love the chance to ask him to his face just what the Hell he's thinking. It may surprise you to hear, but I'd even be polite about it. However, I'd also be relentless in my pursuit of answers... so chances are, he'd probably just walk away in frustration or do the Avoid-Dance.

- "Why are you so upset about it?; I'm not sure if you want Inafune to fail or want him to be successful and are frustrated that he seems to be doing everything to betray that possibility"Truth be told, I want him to fail just enough so he can succeed in the long run. I want him to be able to focus on one and only one thing, wait until it's actually successful, then go from there. I want him to release a freaking game instead of going the Capcom route and releasing everything related to a game except the game itself. Right now, Beck is in the exact same place as Megaman; merchandising Hell... and that's not where he needs to be. Beck needs to have a leg to stand on.instead of being some cute little marketing gimmick mascot thing. I don't think it's too much to ask for for Inafune to wait and see how well the first game does before he plans sequels, spin-offs, merchandise and tie-ins, and the like. And if Inafune's company has to fall into bankruptcy for him to learn that as a game company, you make successful video games above all else, well... so be it.

- "Maybe Inafune is taking on these extra projects to fund his company"Or maybe he's just trying to squeeze every penny he can from the fans by fueling their desire for "a new Mega Man/Legends". Problem being, the only way we'll ever get exactly that is if Capcom either makes it themselves, or licenses their characters to Comcept (or possibly Inti Creates again...). And even then, there's no guarantee that the fans would be happy with what they got... or that such projects would make enough money to justify the production costs.

I think that about covers it for now. I feel like I'm repeating myself a lot by answering these things... but I really have nothing better to do than argue with people on the Internet and make "baseless assumptions" about things I don't know anything about, so hey... ;P

Dude, I know Inafune isn't a scammer. He's not trying to steal your money. If he does that, he would go to jail for that. He's putting his heart and soul into this game and you're being angry at him for marketing it. This is why I don't take the MegaMan fanbase seriously, they're like the Sonic fandom even though I am a calm fan of the Sonic series. See? This is why the MegaMan fanbase lost their reputation because they lash out in anger at the guy who used to make MegaMan games at Capcom and now taking out their anger on him for making MN9 despite it not being out yet. And you want him to fail? That's pretty childish.

Nyngh... Musashi, you're impossible to deal with. I've tried up and down to explain my logic and reasoning to you, but you seem hellbent on trying to discredit me by taking the most negative bits and pieces of what I said and discarding the details surrounding those statements.

And furthermore, I may be a very cynical and very critical member of this community, but I am by no means the baseline on which to judge the entire fandom. It's blanket statements like that which stir up the hornet's nest in the first place! Give some thought into what you type before you type it, alright? I certainly do.

Musashi, as long as Inafune provides what you paid for, he gets off scott free and the law can't touch that.

Even if Mighty No 9 is one of the worst games of all time, Inafune would get off scott free because guess what. He provided what you paid for, which was the video game Mighty No 9. The law has nice loopholes like that, so learn it before you make comments like that.

Joseph. I know you've addressed not being a backer. But you're awfully emotionally charged for someone who doesn't have a financial investment in this. Your criticism of Inafune is fine. What I don't get is the attitude. Perhaps it's just your cynicism not translating well to me? When I read you it honestly sounds like you're seething. Which is a large reason I think you get the attention you do. Granted, I think you'd get it to some degree anyways because you go against the grain, which is a positive and important thing. Some people do need to have that contrast so the hype-train doesn't come at them like a pile of bricks. Even at its best MN9 cannot live up to some of the hype people place onto it.

And Musashi, I do think you're maybe unloading a little too much of your disappointment in the fandom onto Joseph.

Musashi, to say that "Only scammers can be scammers if they go to jail" is incredibly ignorant.

I mean, I'm *not* saying Inafune is a scammer as I don't believe that. I think he's just got good yet naive intentions paving a bad road. But to say something like that is just ignorant. A lot of scammers get out scott-free all the damn time without a single slap on the wrist. Watch the Mike Holmes home reno tv series if you don't believe me. (First immediate example I could think of.) That guy has to fix up a lot of crap left over by scamming contractors.- Dr. Jerk.

Hi there, I just wanted to comment on this one part. I assume you saw the post from that forum mod? Unless he was privy to some concepts the dev team was working with and accidentally let slip, he conflated two discrete parts of the proposed gameplay. If you look at the KS page, it never said anything about transformations coming from enemies, but it did say you could absorb their xels for powerups, which to my knowledge is still in the game.

@Anonymous (July 7, 2015/10:28 PM)From the Kickstarter page: "Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through six stages (or more, via stretch goals) you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies!"

Now you could interpret this as being limited to just the Mighty Numbers... or you could interpret this as being inclusive to random enemies as well. -- which seems to be the case based on the pre-release art (those can't all be Mighty Number transformations) and the aforementioned post from the game staff which reads:"If you're asking about normal enemy transformations, yes that unfortunately has been scrapped due to tight budget."

And on top of that, one of the backer bonuses was "an exclusive in-game transformation"... so if the exclusive transformation was part of the "enemy transformations", then as someone on GameFAQs asked, "what happens to that"?

Hi Joseph, same guy you replied to here. Also from the Kickstarter page, and in that image from the tweet you linked:"Of course our hero, Beck, earns new weapons as he defeats each of his fellow Mighty Number boss robots, but more than that, his body itself can also reconfigure into new shapes, allowing for all kinds of new skills and abilities!"

With the way the various paragraphs are structured and juxtaposed, I totally see how people could get confused, but if you read carefully it never actually says anything to the effect of "killing bosses and/or normal enemies will give you transformations". For the line you quoted, if you want to read it as implying you were intended to get transformations from enemies, well, that's on you, but it seems to me you're doing so based on a flawed logic that must assume the transformations were from enemies when the same part of the page the art you're referencing is located on says nothing about them actually being tied to the bosses, or any enemies at all. As well, "abilities stolen from your enemies" could very well be referencing the xel powerups you collect from normal robots, not transformations.

For the exclusive in-game transformation, they actually acknowledged that just recently! Or, well, they teased it: http://www.mightyno9.com/en/20150611

My take on the transformations is that they would have been unlocked and used similar to the Items or Rush powers of the classic Mega Mans, not being tied directly to any bosses and working as a power you can equip/toggle rather than being collected and used on the battlefield a la the Zero Knuckle. I do think it's unfortunate they removed the feature from the game, especially when it was one of the premises people were asked to back for, but it's important to understand what its place in the game would have been before we hold it against the project.

I'm going to second Joseph and say that the whole stealing transformation from enemies was misleading. Part of what made me back the project was moving away from the traditional Mega Man formula and mixing it up a little, even if it was derivative from Kirby/Axl.

At the moment, the game is literally a reskinned Mega Man with a tackle air dash (a forced gimmick I personally dislike) and inconsequential temporary power ups (that probably took less than a day to implement). It just feels really uninspired and haphazard from a mechanics standpoint.

I feel the same way. Course, who knows, this may all pan out really well for him. I've seen other conglomerations (.hack is one) that released multiple media formats simultaneously prior to any success of the franchise and they did fairly well. So time will tell if this is brilliant or insane lol

Anyone that's played mighty no 9 knows it's meh. I was watching people on the e3 floor play it for 30 seconds and scratch their heads and leave. The running threw enemies mechanic fucking killed it. and the awful visuals and lame music choices didn't help. All these things a "game at some point" a tv show and now a live action movie based on a game that is amazingly generic and bland. I'm sad to see where this goes when the game finally comes out does awful and everyone moves on.

for the love of god, the game hasn't been out yet and keiji is already whoring mighty no 9 to everything? all it needs is a rock band wearing the characters costumes that has shitty musics and pretending they're real robots and the whole circuit is complete. if you get the reference, you are an 80s kid old.

I didn't say that *I* think it would flop. I said that maybe *Inafune fears* it might flop.

Even still, I too think that there is a good chance of this game failing. There's not much wow factor to this game judging from what I have seen in videos, and I doubt a lot of people outside of Mega Man fans would be interested in it, let alone know about it. I'll still get it and play it anyway, but I don't have high hopes for this game.- Dr. Jerk.

I don't know, when I look at more mainstream news sites I see a lot of positive reception. When I step outside of the echo chamber of certain communities, I get a very different perspective on public reception of the title, so I think it'll do fine.

Seriously, there's way too many people here who feel like it's their duty to make the comments section of this site their own personal book on why they hate all things Inafune. (Reality check: It's just a comments section on a blog people.) There are various game series out there that can't release the games that 99% of the fans would like to play because a very vocal 1% of the fanbase just complains about everything with comments like "It's not the same as the older games", or "I could make a better fan game". I thought that the Mega Man community was a bit more mature than this, but I guess that's not the case around here. I think I agree with the anon above me - there's way better fans on the mainstream news sites that just want to discuss the game and enjoy Inafune's work for what it is. It's too bad that certain people here won't be able to enjoy Mighty No. 9 and Red Ash due to personal bias, but please try not to rain on the parade for everyone else.

Hey. I never did say that I hated Inafune. I have never once said I did.

I appreciate Inafune for many things. I appreciate his previous work with Capcom and not just with Mega Man, I appreciate him for leaving the company when he needed to for his own health, and I appreciate his efforts in trying to revive two types of game series that fans have been craving for. But that doesn't mean he gets a free pass from criticism.

I want Mighty No 9 and Red Ash to be the best games they can be. What I am disappointed with is Inafune jumping the gun. He's doing things way too quickly, and what is what worries me. I am genuinely worried for Comcept and their games because of it.

But it is not because I "hate" him, and I am frankly quite disgusted to be suggested that.- Dr. Jerk.

@Anonymous (July 7, 2015/11:34 PM)To be fair, I usually reserve my "novel-sized" rants for my own personal blog. However, the two-part post I made above was intended to clear the air and address common misconceptions about what I've said and continue to say about the project(s) and Inafune as a whole.

Also, I'm not really sure how blindly supporting everything a person does purely based on their previous works is a good thing, especially with their current work seems like a cheap knock-off of their old work.It's also hard to be excited for these kinds of projects when the main projects themselves aren't even ready before the creator(s) decides merchandise it to the extreme... There's such a thing as too much hype, and frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if by the time the game actually comes out, people are sick to death of hearing about it.

With this announcement, I was struck by a realization: the ill-fated Kaio was meant to be a multimedia series, so doesn't it seem like Inafune's trying that again with Mighty No. 9? I kinda get people getting upset over announcements like this and that cartoon, because they feel like the we're already oversaturated with the property, but if we look at it this way perhaps it gets easier to swallow.

There's nothing inherently wrong with the multimedia approach, but the timing for the announcements has been poor and put people out of sorts. Usually these things are all announced simultaneously, but I understand that wasn't an option here, and it's just how things have played out. In any case, I think all the people upset by developments like this will get to calm down once the game is finally out. It will all be in the past then.

I find that immediate multimedia attempts always end poorly. Everything is hyped out to the max and in-your-face, and while it might work for a little while there, it eventually starts to burn out and everything comes to halt.

Viva Pinata was kind of at fault with this, when Rare and 4Kids partnered to make that cartoon and merchandise tie-ins. Plus that one party game that was more closely based on the cartoon than the original game. Granted it wasn't as bad as what Inafune is doing here, but it still seemed forced. It all played a strong game at first, but then it slowed down and quietly died to be forgotten. People are right that you just don't make a franchise happen immediately. Popularity is a big factor in the success and longevity in anything, and Mighty No 9 is not as popular as when it was first announced.- Dr. Jerk.

You've certainly got a point about multimedia franchises being difficult to pull off, but the so-called immediate attempts do not always end in failure. Someone mentioned .hack above as a successful example, and there's also Level-5 which has not only created multiple mega hit multimedia franchises, but has been openly praised by Inafune for their ability to do so and their overall creativity, thus lending to my assertion that he's trying the same thing again now.

I'm sure there are more failures than successes when it comes to trying this, but we can't say how this one will play out yet. While it's true MN9 is nowhere near the hot topic it was in 2013, that's really to be expected in the long wait from campaign to fulfillment, isn't it? We'll know how successful it is or isn't once we finally get one of the products of this franchise, the game, in our hands and see public reception reflected in the reviews and sales.

One thing I can't argue about is multimedia franchises burning out. Even Level-5 drops their hit series once the returns have dried up to move onto the next one. We can only hope comcept cools its jets with the MN9 franchising after this to avoid fatigue.

Okay well maybe some "immediate" franchises are more successful than others. I'm not saying they all end up that way, just the seemingly majority of them. It's still a risky business practice, and I'd rather that Inafune handle this more smartly. I don't want this to bite him back in the end.- Dr. Jerk.

Oh for sure, I get you. I'm certain there are more failures than successes stories when it comes to multimedia franchise attempts... like the aforementioned Kaio, or Capcom's recent attempt with Gaist Crusher. I'm right there with you in wishing they'd just calm down and not overplay their hand before the game is out, but maybe it will pay off in the end. At the very least, the cartoon series is being funded by the studio making it so it's no skin off comcept's back.

Honestly, I was quite speechless when a live-action movie of all things was announced. I... honestly cannot see this game transitioning to that form of media very well; Video game movie adaptions, especially live action, seldom ever do. I'd rather he just stick with the cartoon/anime if anything. MN9 doesn't need a movie like this.- Dr. Jerk.